Reputation – the greatest asset and the greatest risk of all

AICD webinar - reputation risk

Key points from today’s AICD webinar

The Hayne Royal Commission is yet to deliberate and make its recommendations and policy settings are not yet defined, but the messages are clear and align with what ASIC and other regulators have been saying.

  • Reputation risk and brand damage is endemic across the corporate landscape. This includes corporates, government, not for profits and even sporting teams.
  • A fundamental revisit is required.
  • Reputation, conduct, trust, risk and social license are an interconnected set of issues that require focus and leadership at the board level. These must be tackled in an integrated way.
  • Today’s webinar takes you through a range of ways to approach and think about this.
  • The modern audit / risk committee director is a specialised vocation. The APRA CBA report sets out a subset of what’s required and is essential reading.

Key questions for Directors and Officers

  1. Are there norms in your industry that breaching traditional social contracts or are out of line with community expectations?
  2. Is there anything that you’d feel embarrassed about?
  3. Has your organisation been desensitised to industry norms? Would they know?
  4. Does what people say match what people do?
  5. Who are the culture carriers in our organisation?
  6. What behaviours do we tolerate?
  7. And in each unit? Do we have pockets?

Some places to start

  1. Board / leadership discussion on the issues raised today
  2. Deep dive on reputation
  3. Good/bad/ugly review on your organisation’s risk and assurance programs
  4. Sanity check on your audit/risk committee calendar and reporting

Professional development

We like these. We hope you do too.

The Good Place – This very snackable and binge-worthy show is a laugh a minute. By the end of season 2 the punchline comes home. When Netflix commissions a high-ratings show on ethics you know that something is up.  You might even find yourself researching the origin of the term “good will”. 

APRA CBA report – Essential reading by anyone on an Audit or Risk Committee. It’s a subset of the modern playbook for these committees but is clear and highly instructive. Read for the symptoms, not just the recommendations.

ASIC speeches – Pithy and gives some good pointers on what the regulators are thinking about.

CPS 220 – The defacto playbook for the modern risk committee. It doesn’t cover everything but it is a good set of pointers on modern practice.

Missed the webinar?

If so, you missed out on:

  • The linkages between social license, trust, conduct and reputation
  • Why brand integrity is king
  • Trust indicators and destroyers
  • #metoo @ scale and links to the Arab Spring
  • Corporate valuations and reputation linkages
  • A value network approach to goodwill
  • Desensitisation
  • More feedback than Jimi Hendrix
  • Highlights from recent inquiries
  • Darley’s Law
  • Creating a visceral reaction on values.

If you’d like to catch up on all of this, a recorded version of the webinar is available from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.